When the Adamson family first saw the Railway Barracks they immediately thought it would make the perfect home for their family.

Some eight years later when the main building and three surrounding cottages were for sale the property was derelict, damaged by fire and falling apart.

Thankfully, Graeme Adamson likes a challenge.

The barracks, consisting of a caretaker's room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and ten separately accessible rooms on back-to-back along a veranda, is supplemented by three self contained cottages on Wittenoom Street, Kalgoorlie.

The cottages were restored first and rented out.

The Barracks took two years of work before the family could move in and Mr Adamson estimates there are still some years left before the job is done.

The mammoth task is carried out in close consultation with the Heritage Council.

The Council asks that any extensions to the existing heritage building be easily identifiable as new, hence why the new walls are clad with corrugated iron instead of brick.

Most of the original fittings are still intact including the windows, doors, skirting boards and jarrah floorboards.

"Even though there aren't a lot of fancy features in the building, it's just on a grand scale and it had things like hot running water and flushing toilets," Mr Adamson said.

Where possible, Mr Adamson salvages materials taken from the Barracks to use at a later date.

The floorboards in the extension are all reclaimed from old houses in Kalgoorlie that have been demolished.

Mr Adamson does all the work on the Barracks in his spare time and calls it his "unpaid work".

He and his wife Robyn have an interest in history, but he is unsure where his passion for restoration came from.

"I don't know, it just turned up one day, it might be because I'm in the building trade.

"It will be another couple of years (until completion) I think, everything is on a big scale, we've got to do a new front fence and it's 35 metres of fence which is probably three times what most blocks are, and also three times the price.

"It will be worth it in the end, getting a lot of pleasure out of just saving these old buildings from being demolished and falling to rack and ruin, because that's what would have happened."

"I don't plan on leaving, not for a while."

To hear an audio tour of the Kalgoorlie Railway Barracks, click the play button on the bottom right-hand corner of the photo above.